First week in Prague, without being buried in TEFL!

Hi all!

My first week in Prague after the whirlwind of TEFL has been surprisingly productive and overall, very good!

As I mentioned in my last post I believe, I spent hours last weekend marketing myself online for private English lessons.  I put ads up on a number of websites, posted flyer's around the city, contacted people I already knew, created my own website, etc.

Delicious dinner at home, along with some excellent reading material ;-)

Well thus far, that has all paid off majorly!!!  Within about 4 days of having done all that, I received an influx of responses.  Today alone, I had four meetings, back to back.  It was exhausting!  For lessons, one needs to be "on" all the time.  Energetic, paying close attention to what the student is saying, bringing out lots of interactive activities, being engaging and energetic, etc.  And between each lesson, I was running around, walking quickly down back streets of Prague, consulting my map, hopping on the metro or the tram, etc.  It was a very hurried and draining day.

However as a result...drum roll....I have 5 confirmed one-on-one lessons now!!!  And that is not including: the one I am meeting with for the first time tomorrow (assuming he wants to work with me too), and two other people who contacted me today!!  So I have at least 5, which are confirmed, and as of early next week, potentially even 8!

The people I have mentioned this to have been stunned as to how I made this happen so quickly.  That has been pretty neat.  I do feel really good about it.  And the answer as to how: I HUSTLED, big time.  Put in hours and hours on the Internet and walking around in Prague.

In other news, I have an interview next Wednesday for a teaching job!  Unfortunately not at a preschool (which is what I really want as the hours are regular and thus, the pay is consistent), it would be for a teaching job where I am sent out around Prague to teach different classes, but it is a company recommended to me by someone I know, so I suspect it is a decent place to work.  I am excited about that!

And finally, I signed up for an Au Pair/Babysitting website.  It cost me a small chunk of change, but I thought about it very carefully, and sometimes one  has to spend a bit of money to make money.  I have not bought a SINGLE thing for myself at all, period.  No clothes, no magazines, not even eating out, nada.  So I figured this was a fairly smart thing to buy for myself, if there was one.  I have spent about 4 hours now on that website, sending out many messages to potential babysitting jobs.  I would love to have something like that as well, part time on the side.

The majority of people who do TEFL and graduate from my course teach maybe 25 hours per week.  I am looking to work/teach around 35-40, a weekly work schedule like back in the US for a of couple reasons.  First, why not?  And secondly, my main goal of being here is to travel.  The best way to do that: money.  And working keeps me busy, productive and feeling good!  I also do not want to feel like I am scraping by.  Because I very much feel like that now, and I can tell you, it is a truly terrible feeling.  Deeply stressful, anxiety provoking and just generally pretty awful.  So I would like to work more so that I do not have to feel like that at all again.

Now onto exciting and fun stuff!

Tonight, I made my very first homemade bread from scratch, using yeast!!!  I made a loaf of Schwabischer Hefezopf, the recipe I provided in my blog entry from Oktoberfest (the amazing German bread that Doro served the entire time we stayed at her house, which she had made herself).  Oh my gosh, I was nervous about how it might come out.  Especially because the dough was ULTRA gooey.  But it came out wonderfully.  It is DELICIOUS.  Ever-so-slightly cakey but very moist, with the dense, slightly sweet and egg-y taste to it.  I sprinkled vanilla sugar crystals on top.  BOO YEAH!  Take a look at my finished product:

DELECTABLE!!!

In other fun news, tomorrow evening (Friday night), I am going out for burgers with a few of my friends (now ex-TEFLers ha ha).  We are going to a restaurant called The Tavern.  When I Googled where I could find the best burgers in all of Prague, this is the place that was ranked top notch.  You can take a looksie here if you are interested: http://www.eng.thetavern.cz/

I am thinking of all of you, all my close friends and family.  I miss each of you very often.